As lead generation and CPA advertising moves from a creep to a full out assault in the online media monetization mix, there’s one akward conversation I am tired of having:

Person who grew up in a CPM Ad Inventory Era:  Love, love, love, LOOOOVE the new revenue numbers, guys…so, when do me and my User Generated Content team get to join the party?
Me:  Sorry, Champ.  You should probably sit this play out.

Lead generation may be the most profitable online activity other than releasing your celebrity sex tape, but it usually requires an atmosphere of information asymmetry.  In other words, you need an audience of confused buyers or at least an audience in the consideration phase of a purchase.  You do not want a town hall atmosphere of highly-motivated and altruistic do-gooders.

User-generated content (UGC) has a knack for solving problems pretty quickly.   Even if your users don’t actually solve the problem, at least one of them will say something that sounds authoritative enough for a plurality to rally around.  Just check out any Wikipedia page…

For the same reason Home Depot doesn’t hire guys like MacGyver, you should keep UGC off your lead gen sites.  If you are trying to hock interest-only mortgages (which do make quite a bit of sense for smart investors), you do not want to see 35 entries that resemble the Suze Orman Trail of Tears below your sales page.  If you are peddling ringtones, you do not want Ralph Nader Jr. telling everyone how the contracts work.  If you run an e-commerce site with UGC, you better either have the best prices or the best moderation.

Because I am a giver by nature, I close with a simple flash card:

UGC:  $4 RPM, Ineffective East Coast online marketers, 1990’s
Lead Gen:  $80+ RPM, super-smart West Coast post-Millenium marketers, you do not serve as a public utility

Over/under before the New York Times goes Suge Knight on my car:  30 days

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